Walk the Line
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Somewhere between human and undead lies a new species of mutant or sub human. Someone capable of surviving hell on earth. Rick never imagined he'd fall in love, let alone marry again- yet what choice did he have when a marriage to this strange young beauty could mean life or death? Rick/OC pairing
1. Chapter 1

**Okay- first off, hi.**

 **To those of you who don't know me, I'm baby-kitsune9. And this is my first try at writing a Walking Dead story. I'm not entirely sure what may pop up later in the story or just how weird it may get, so fair warning to those of you who have never read anything of mine.**

 **I don't do rainbows and kittens. I do M-rated shit.**

 **Zombies, rape, blood, gore, incest and whatever else pops into my head. So- if you leave a review and your a dick about it because your easily offended, or you had nightmares or wet the bed- I will destroy you.**

 **Because I gave you fair warning at the top of this chap.**

 **Now because I new to this I'm going to try and keep it in character, but that's sometimes easier said than done. This story takes place when Rick and the others reach Alexandria, and have agreed to give it a try without knowing what the one stipulation for them to stay is.**

 **However Rick knows and is already going over things in his mind.**

 **So people, this is a Rick Grimes and OC story.**

 **Enjoy the fun. I will.**

 **(*******************************************************************************************************************************************************)**

Alexandria two months ago-

It had been the answer to their prayers, or so it had seemed to him, from the moment he and his make shift family had walked through the thick metal gate where they were met by two young men with semi automatic guns and a smiling woman in a sage green knit sweater wit shoulder length blond hair.

The woman as it turned out, was named Deanna, and she was the leader of the people of Alexandria.

Which was a good thing, he supposed since she was a former senator from another state who hadn't gone on ahead with everyone else in office and thus somehow wound up in the middle of no where in Georgia where she came across an abandoned lot of land with a gated community built upon it, and had settled there. And built walls and begun to take in other survivors.

To people like Rick and his family, the high stone walls and thick gate standing between them and the undead was- after such a long and tiring time on the run- a nice change of pace. They all felt that they could finally take a load off and relax.

Deanna was more than generous with her welcome of them. Giving them two large two story houses that had never been lived in before, complete with food, running water, clothing and more than enough room for everyone.

All she asked for in return once they were settled, tied into a complicated stipulation for them to remain. For Rick and his family to be able to stay, the unwed men of Ricks group had to take wives and start families.

Understanding just how much more responsibility they would be taking on and how it might upset his family's dynamics, he asked for time to think of a way to tell everyone what would be happening.

After all if your going into an arrangement like the one Deanna had planned- one couldn't walk into it blind. Well, not completely anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

There was an unsettling sort of silence in the bedroom of his new home. The same new home that he shared with half of his family, Carl and Judith included. Which was probably the reason for his waking so early in the morning.

The bedroom was so eerily silent that for a moment Rick wondered if both of his children were alright. Rolling onto his side while keeping his eyes closed, he reached out to where Carl usual lay next to him on the massive king sized bed and felt nothing.

No warmth, no indent from where his son had lain all night- and felt a moment of panic causing him to reach out a little further to his left where he knew he had lain his infant daughter Judith down late last night and frowned a little more when he felt nothing there.

Now at an almost full blown panic, Rick Grimes bolted upright in his bed and hurriedly looked around his room, hoping that Carl was just hanging out over by the window where the rocking chair one of their new neighbors had brought by a few days ago so that they could rock Judith when it was bed time and she was being fussy.

Little did they know that Judith, though an infant, rarely fussed about anything unless it was food. So Carl had decided to use the chair to hang out close by and skulk around at the window and watch the people of the Alexandria as they went about their morning business.

To see if anything... _alarming_ happened.

Which was fine by Rick since he had an instinctual feeling that despite the 'niceness' and supposed 'safety' the town and it's people seemed to project outward and enjoy- that there was just something off. Something that was going to fuck things up for everyone. And frankly he wanted his kids and the others of his group nearby for when that happened so that he could save as many of them as possible.

He'd stopped saying the words aloud a while back when the group had been on the fucking road trying to survive- but he was damned tired of seeing good people die.

Turning over to look at his kids, he saw Carl look away from the window for a moment and could see from the look in his son's eyes... That he was damned tired of seeing good people die too. Not that the little punk would ever admit it.

No, he was too stubborn. A trait that he'd undoubtedly gotten from him.

Rick had never known what to think about that particular trait being something that his son had inherited from him, but now that the world was what it was- he supposed the boy would need all the stubbornness he could muster just to survive when the next incident occurred.

"Hey son." Rick greeted in his usual morning rough voice.

"Hey dad." Carl greeted back as he returned his attention to the window and narrowed his eyes a bit when he saw an elderly man stagger down the street in front of the house- He then saw Glenn and Carol begin to make their way towards the man- assuming he had somehow become a walker when someone came barreling past them and descended on the elder like some avenging angel of some sort.

"Son?" Rick said questioningly as he slowly pushed himself upright after seeing Carl shift his sister to the crook of his other arm and make a subtle reach for the knife he'd been allowed to keep upon their arrival in the town. So that they could protect themselves to some degree if something should happen. "Carl? What's doing?"

"I dunno." Carl replied as he continued to watch. Glenn and Carol had stopped about thirty or so paces from the elder and the other person- from what details he could make out- the 'avenging angel' was a young girl. If her appearance was anything to go by.

She couldn't have been any older than him, give of take a year or two.

And she was pretty.

With soft peach colored skin, mid back length aqua blue colored hair pulled back into a ponytail at the back of her head, with a black and aqua colored ribbon tied in a bow around her long slender neck with a big silver colored bell hanging from the ribbon in a bizarre parody of a feline collar.

Her clothes were odd though.

She was wearing a knee length black jacket that looked a tad bit bulky on her slender frame, fingerless black gloves, black denim skinny jeans, and calf length fur lined black leather boots.

She had the elder by the elbow and was carefully maneuvering him to one of the houses a little ways down and across from their own. And after delivering him to someone standing on the house's porch to be taken inside, she made her way back to where Glenn and Carol were and said something that seemed to instantly calm them.

Feeling the air stir just next to him, Carl turned his head slightly to see his dad standing just barely a hairs breath from him and his sister peering through the blinds on the window at the girl before asking, "What happened?"

Carl shook his head, not really knowing or understanding. So he gave his dad a play by play of what had occurred with the elderly man and the girl and once he was done, his dad could do nothing but sigh before saying, "I guess the girl knew something that Glenn and Carol didn't," Carl shrugged his shoulders as he and his dad watched as Carol motioned for the girl to come up to their house. Apparently wanting to introduce her to everyone else and possibly pump her for information on the people of the town when his dad huffed a little and mutter, "Damned woman. I guess we'll be having a guest for breakfast this morning. Which means... I need a shower. Why don't you go ahead and take Judith down and see what's going on until I can get down there."

Carl nodded his head in silent understanding.

He was to act as his father's eyes and ears.

Leaning over his kids, Rick kissed his son and daughter on the head and then made a quick beeline for the bathroom as his son turned and left the room so that his dad would have some privacy.

(*************************************************************************************************************************)

V stood in the middle of the over crowded kitchen, silently observing everyone as they collected their breakfast and asked Glenn and Carol who 'the strange kid' was as Carol fixed her a plate of eggs, bacon, and a biscuit with some gravy on it and a cup of fresh coffee with sugar and cream in it and handed both along with a fork to Glenn who walked over to her and handed them to her.

Startling her just a bit as her pinkish colored eyes flickered to his face and she muttered a barely audible 'thanks' and then looked around for a place to seat herself since she had never been terribly coordinated at eating while standing up as a boy with collar length dark brown hair, holding a baby in a pale pink and blue dress appeared out of no where to her left, which was more or less her blind side.

Nearly causing her to jump out of her skin since she was generally much better at watching her blind side than she seemed to be in this bunch.

There was just so many of them that she was becoming somewhat twitchy. A habit that she had picked up in the beginning when she had been alone. Back when the world had first come to a halt and everyone had either been executed of eaten alive.

After all, running, hiding and fighting for your life every day tended to breed certain kinds of behavior in a person. And the fact that she was so much more different than everyone just made those habits all that much harder to hide all the time.

And while being twitchy in a crowd this small wasn't exactly something new- it was still a learned behavior that she was working hard to suppress lest someone might start asking questions and figure out that she wasn't exactly...well, _normal_.

Trying hard not to make herself seem overly weird or interesting or threatening to the boy standing next to her, she looked over at him and gave him an awkward smile and a slight finger wave for the baby when Carol looked up from what she was doing and paused.

Apparently having finally realized that she was just standing there, the food and coffee in her hands totally untouched and quickly shooed several of the men folk away from the island where there had been sitting while they ate, earning her a bunch of grouching and muttering before she turned her attention to V and waved her over to an empty seat.

Flushing from embarrassment, V hung her head slightly and warily made her way past everyone that had been shooed away by Carol- because apparently the men didn't understand that when a woman shooed them from somewhere- she meant for them to get lost. Not hang around like a bunch of gossiping old hens.

 _Weirdo's_. She thought as she slowly sat down on one of the stools next to a lean bodied woman with dreadlocks and dark chocolate colored skin.

"So," Carol began as she watched V shift around for a moment in an effort to get comfortable. A difficult feat with a bunch of people staring at her and boring a hole through her damned skull while she tried to eat a little bit and ignore them and their stupid stares while Carol started asking questions. "What's you're name?"

"Vicious." She replied automatically. Not wanting to give them her real name since that was something she reserved for only the closest of friends and family. "But most just call me V."

Carol tilted her head slightly to the left as she regarded the girl. She had a peculiar manner to her that was a little hard to place but she knew she'd figure it out in a little bit. For now though, she just wanted information.

"Vicious... That's a little bit of a strange name for such a pretty young girl." The dark skinned woman next to V said.

"Yeah well, the name fits." V said as she took another bite of her food.

"How so, hon?" Carol asked curiously causing V to sigh as she replied.

"Because I'm apparently a vindictive bitch when I lose my temper. Thus the name Vicious."

"I see. I'll have to remember that," Carol said, and V could see that the wheels in her mind were already turning a mile a minute. "Do you go to school?" She asked, continuing her bout of interrogation. V licked her suddenly dry lips and shook her head no. Not bothering to vocalize that she wasn't in school due to her age.

There were just certain things she didn't care to give away to strangers at this moment in time. "Do you work?" Someone aside from Carol asked. V thought it was the Aisan guy at first but it turned out to be the boy holding the baby.

"Uh, yeah. I work. Deanna gave me the job of being an enforcer. Which is basically something like a cop. I make sure that the people of the town are safe and stick to the rules." V said as she pushed away her plate of half eaten food, her stomach was begging to churn and hurt in an overly familiar way that spelled trouble for her if she were to eat any more of the well done food.

So now she was down to just drinking her coffee...

 _Oh I am going to be puking in some unlucky bush outside in a little while_ , She thought with an inward cringe that she hoped she didn't show as she picked up her coffee cup and began to sip the hot liquid. Hating the idea of wasting the food that she had eaten but knowing that her body currently couldn't function on it. Not when it needed blood and raw meat. Meaning that she'd have to slip out later today or tonight and go hunting for a few wild rabbits or something.

After of course, she finished her rounds and went to the infirmary for a blood transfusion.

"An enforcer. That sounds interesting. But aren't you a bit young for such a dangerous job?" Carol said in a somewhat calculating tone. V didn't answer. She knocked back the rest of the coffee and had to resist the urge to cough a few times once she was done due to the fact that the liquid had burned her mouth and throat pretty badly as she set the cup down on the island and sat there for a moment trying not to cry.

Her mouth and throat hurt pretty bad. Not to mention the pain in her stomach was increasing by the second. Which meant that she needed to make her excuses and leave otherwise these people were going to have get a really bad/gross shock.

"Th-That's good coffee." She wheezed out as she tried to smile at Carol but was having a hard time doing so when she felt bile burning it's way up her throat. She sat there awkwardly smiling through her tears for a moment before finally managing to say in a squeaky tone, "Everything was very nice. Thank you for inviting me in but I have to get back to work."

"Oh. Okay." Carol said, with a frown marring her features as the girl jumped up and awkwardly waved at everyone and then all but ran out of the house. Completely missing the man that had been standing with his back to the wall just inside the stair way, silently listening to everything being said.

His damp dark brown hair curling in a haphazard way around his face and shoulders as his blue eyes took a moment to lock onto the five foot five, slender, blue haired figure that raced past him. Seemingly desperate to get out into the open and away from his 'family' as he heard someone in the kitchen say, "Okay. I don't care what ya'll think- _that_ little gal is weird."

And Rick Grimes couldn't have agreed more.


	3. Chapter 3

Later that night-

Rick was having trouble drifting off. He didn't know why.

He just felt as if something was off in the cozy town which he and his family now resided in, which was possibly why he found himself leaving his bed at close to two in the morning with the pistol he'd managed to hide, enough bullets to take down a small army, and of course his bowie knife which he took a moment to strap to his belt along with the gun before glancing back at his kids.

Both of whom were out cold after their long day of meeting people, having their cheeks pinched, and so on as he silently slipped out the bedroom door and cautiously made his way down the stairs at an unhurried pace to keep the steps from squeaking or giving under his weight as he moved. It was a trick that he had leaned from all his time as both a cop and from fighting against the hoards of undead.

And it was a trick he used often. Far too often for his liking if he was to be perfectly honest. But tonight he simply used it to keep everyone else from being alerted to his movements since he hadn't deemed it necessary to alert them just yet.

Besides a majority of them were soundly sleeping at the moment. With the exception of Daryl, Glenn, Maggie and Carol. All of whom had developed the habit of staying up in shifts when they had all lived in the prison some odd months back. Before they had lost more than half of their people to the asshole calling himself the Governor.

Back before the had lost Hershel and Beth and Tyrese and Bob.

Hearing the soft speaking of Glenn and Daryl and Carol outside on the front porch, Rick decided to take the back door to sneak out of the house. Figuring that if he stuck in between the houses, to the shadows, he might be able to figure out what it was that had disturbed him enough to leave his home in the dead of the night when he should have stayed put and fallen asleep.

But old habits were hard to break. And despite the fact that everyone was supposedly safe inside the walls of the town, he couldn't help the fact that it was his habit to do a walk around the perimeter and make absolutely certain that everything was just so.

It was something that had been drilled into his head first as a cop and now that the world was as dangerous as it was, it had become a habit that he clung to out of the desperate need for survival. It was something he would never stop doing. He couldn't. He just couldn't.

There were too many lives on the line. Many of which were as endeared to him as his own blood kin. And there was simply no room for compromise- he would protect them with everything he had until his very last breath.

Slipping out of the house, he quietly shut the door behind him and began to walk. Not really having any particular direction in mind. He was following his instinct towards the source of his disturbance.

Frowning a bit when he found himself drawing closer and closer to the front gate of the town which should have been completely shut. But didn't appear to be completely closed. Nor did there appear to be anyone watching it.

 _Where is the night guard?_ He wondered as he got closer and then stopped suddenly when he heard the damned moans and shuffling of feet and found himself freezing in place for a moment. His heart slamming against his ribs in panic as he thought frantically, _No, no, no, no, no- This can't be happening! Not so soon!_

The town couldn't be under attack already! It just couldn't be.

There were people- elders, children, families not so much unlike his own that lived here. That believed that they were protected from attack and the devastation and death that these undead monsters brought with them everywhere they went.

His mind blanking with anger and rage for these monsters that preyed upon the living, and left them no place for hope or comfort or solace- he pulled his gun and charged the undead that had somehow managed to slip inside the gate. His only thought was to kill them before they killed someone else and close the gate.

Relocking them out.

(*********************************************************************************************************************)

V stood off to the side of the gate in the shadows with four fat rabbits slung over one of her slender shoulders, trailing blood down her back and spreading to her side. Staining her normally clean clothing with their sweet smelling lifeblood. She had just jumped down from the top of the wall where she had climbed over like she usually did when she left the town at night since she didn't like using the gate.

The undead were more active at night. And often swarmed near the walls and gate to try and get in. And tonight it seemed as if they had finally managed it, though their numbers were much fewer than they had been several minutes ago due to the fact that she had had to sacrifice several of her rabbits (since she had had more than she did now) just to lure some of them back out.

Which was why the gate was open at the moment.

She'd been about to close and lock it again when five of the damned things had smelled the fresh rabbit blood on her- so sweet and tempting- that they had all but ambushed her with their sheer numbers and now they were shuffling about several feet from her trying to sniff her out.

Which wasn't a terrible issue at the moment since she wasn't moving nor breathing. Having locked her body into place and shut down her lug functions so that she could plan her next move before they found her or more managed to find their way in- when she saw one of the town's latest arrivals and went wide eyed in alarm as the man all but charged the undead and began dropping them like someone possessed.

Giving her just enough time to restart her lung functions and move to jerk the gate closed and quickly locked it closed before turning to go help the man since one of the undead had managed to come up behind him while he was killing another and grabbed his shoulder.

Giving her only a moment or so to react in the only way that she could.

She dropped her kills, ran the considerable distance between her and the man and slammed her shoulder into the side of the undead's torso, knocking it off balance while simultaneously slamming one of her gloved hands against it's forearm, snapping the bone like a twig and fell with it to the ground where it snapped it's jaws at her until she reared back her fist and punched it's decaying skull in with her steel knuckled glove covered hand.

Then slowly and carefully got to her feet and walked up to the man who seemed to be torn between checking the gate to make sure that it was really closed and checking her to make sure she was okay.

He chose the latter.

"A-Are you okay?" He stammered out, recognizing her as the girl who had been in his home yesterday morning. And he couldn't help but wonder what she was doing out so late.

"Yeah," V muttered as she shook her bloodied hand all while trying not to gag at the mess the undead had left behind when she had punched it's skull in. There was decayed flesh, black blood and some bone and brain matter on her glove and fingers. It was disgusting. "Are you okay?" She finally asked him.

The man nodded, his blue eyes staring at her bloodied hand with a hint of something she didn't dare to think on too much otherwise she might never bother sleeping again. Seriously, it was a scary looking stare. Blood chilling really.

"H-How did the gate get open?" He demanded in an downright furious tone. Obviously not liking his night time exercise. Not that she blamed him any. She hadn't cared much for this mess either. But accidents happened.

"Oh that- sorry, these here caught me unaware and pushed their way in along with some friends. I had to use the gate to lead the others back out. But these were stubborn. I honestly didn't mean for any of them to get by me... Sorry." She said, lying only the smallest bit to ease his fears while she thought of a way to keep something like this from ever happening again.

She was going to pitch her 'fire bug' idea to Deanna again and see if anyone else would jump onboard the band wagon. Seriously, fire was one of the best ways to get rid of the damned things in masses. And sure it left the land barren for a while, but that also made for awesome fertilizer for new plants and such.

So honestly what the hell was it going to take before someone jumped on the bandwagon with her? Because she really got tired of those undead creeps.

Rick regarded the girl's impassive expression with a calculating look as he mulled over her words. It did seem like an entirely plausible story to him. And it also explained what she was doing out so late. But he didn't buy it. Not completely. Something about her story partially had his bullshit-o-meter screaming.

Still, he nodded his head and then asked her if she wanted him to walk her home, and instantly knew that something was up when she suddenly became skittish and nervous. Like she didn't want him walking her home for some reason.

Rick decided then and there that he'd have to keep a very close eye on this girl.

And he still managed to walk her home despite any and all arguments and protests. _After_ she of course, ran back into the shadows and collected four fat and bloody rabbits before he noticed the side of her clothing in the darkness, stained a sweet smelling red.

Reaching out, he grasped her shoulder and drew her to a halt under a street lamp so that he could study the stain better. Suddenly feeling anxious that she might have been bitten or something and he might have to kill her to protect himself and everyone else in Alexandra.

V looked up at him as she was drawn to a stop as the man stepped up to her and lightly touched her blood stained side with his fingertips and almost jerked his hand away, his expression curious and anxious, and scared all at once. His blue eyes boring studying her in the darkness for... What?

Pain?

The blood wasn't even her- Oh. _Oh!_ That's what he was thinking! He thought that she was injured. Eyes widening in realization, she opened her mouth and quickly blurted out, _"It's not mine."_


	4. Chapter 4

Early the next morning, Rick sat in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee while Carol cooked everyone breakfast- talking to those he trusted most about what had happened last night during his 'little' outing. Including his little run in with some walkers, and how the kid with the blue hair had helped keep him from joining their ranks.

"So you ran into V last night?"

"Hn." Came the noncommittal reply from Rick as he took another sip of his drink and waited for the rest of the questions to start being asked. "S-Right. Turns out that the damn kid was doing some hunting in the dead of the night. Her kills had bled all over her clothes and the walkers had ambushed her while she tried to re-enter the town in an attempt to consume whatever it was they were smelling."

"She wasn't bitten or scratched was she?" Daryl asked from where he was lounging with his back against the fridge. Rick looked up at him for a moment and then slowly shook his head 'no' before speaking again.

"Nah. She hadn't been scratched or bit. The amount of blood staining her clothes had me worried there for a sec though."

"You were already planning on how to explain to Deanna why you killed her and got rid of the body, huh." Glenn commented.

Rick didn't dare deny his words. The man- much like certain others in his family- knew him all too well after meeting him and fighting alongside him for survival for the past four years. He was their leader after all. They looked to him for guidance in almost all matters. Not because they couldn't be trusted to make their own choices but because he somehow managed to keep many of them alive despite the odds being stacked against him.

So lying to them now about his thoughts last night while he'd been in the kid's presence was absolutely out of the question. Because by doing so, it meant that he needed to come clean about the fact that he was starting to second guess himself. Because second guessing oneself just got people killed.

A fact that he'd had to learn the hard way with his late friend Shane.

"Pretty much," Rick admitted in wry amusement as he polished off his coffee only to have Michonne refill it for him. "I was thinking something along the lines of, _'I don't know how that knife got there. But I'm pretty sure that she tripped.'_ " Earning a laugh from Glenn and Daryl and Carol until they heard a throat clear across the room, drawing everyone's attention and upon seeing the kid standing there...all amusement fled their expressions and several of them began to look... _Uncomfortable_.

 _Welcome to my world,_ Vicious thought almost sadly to herself. "Sorry. I knocked several times but no one answered." V said awkwardly as she shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot while standing in place out of habit.

"So you just barged in?" Carol snapped at her, any former friendliness and warmth that V had picked up on from the woman was gone now. Leaving behind a cold and bitter woman.

"No. Well, yes, but I wouldn't have if I hadn't of gotten worried-" V tried to explain before shaking her head, knowing that they wouldn't understand the why's of what had gotten her worried and simply decided to finish her task and leave. Believing that avoiding these people from now on would be far better than trying to bother befriending any of them. After all, didn't she have enough people trying to murder her in cold blood? Why would she possibly need more? "Anyways, I just wanted to give all of you a heads up. Deanna is planning to give some of you jobs already. She should be by within an hour or so."

"Oh. Uh, thanks for the heads up." Rick said as he used a hand to rub at his nape as the girl continued to stand there for a moment and just stared at them all. Her expression blank, her eyes dull and devoid of any signs of life before she finally turned on her booted heel and walked out of the house.

Slamming the door behind her.

And causing Rick to flinch slightly at the sound.

"Damn, you'd think that we killed her puppy or something from the way she acted." Daryl muttered as Michonne sighed and hissed.

"Idiot. She probably heard a bit more of our conversation than she should have."

"So."

"So? _So_. She must have heard more than she should have- it probably hurt her feelings."

"Well, hell woman, she shouldn't have eavesdropped." Daryl growled at the woman as Rick moved to get up.

"Rick?" Carol said questioningly as he left the kitchen and headed for the front door.

"That was a private conversation that should have never have been overheard- especially by the girl. Even so, if it hurt her feelings then the only right thing to do is to apologize." Rick said from over his shoulder as he left the house and began running after the blue headed figure who was already a fairly good distance from the house.


	5. Chapter 5

V heard the pounding of heavy feet hitting the pavement a little ways behind her and let out a tired sigh. It was the man who had been speaking back at the house- the man named Grimes. She knew because she could smell the scent of the Irish spring soap he'd used when he had showered this morning.

It was a nice scent. Some might even consider it comforting.

But right then, in that very moment, she hated the nice fresh scent almost with a passion. Almost as much as she disliked the man himself now that she had a good feel for his character after overhearing him and his friends talking about her like the bunch of bratty little shit heads they obviously were.

They were lucky that she was a person of restraint otherwise she'd have stepped into the room and knocked a few of their fucking teeth out. Possibly even dislocated a couple of jaws in the process. However- despite how badly they had made her feel with their out of line conversation- she wasn't the type of person to easily give in to her anger.

Because that's how people got hurt. Or dead.

And to her way of thinking the dead far out numbered the living now. So she would be the bigger person and walk away before she gave in to her anger and hurt.

Because she didn't want to be the kind of person who randomly hurt others for fun like _some_ people.

The scent of the man got closer. As did the footfalls, until finally he'd caught up with her and his hand was gripping her wrist, pulling her to a stop. His voice cutting through her thoughts like a knife through butter.

"Hey!" She turned her head to look at him slowly, not caring much for the perturbed expression on his face. Just what was he so damn bothered about anyways? "I said stop." He said in a pissed tone as she took a moment to glance down at where his hand was wrapped around her wrist, and got pissed enough to slapped his hand sharply enough to force him to release her.

"Sorry," She said blankly, her tone oozing fake politeness. "Must not have heard you."

He continued to shake the stinging hand that she had slapped as his blue eyes glared at her for a moment. He didn't like her attitude. She was snotty and self centered and obviously hadn't been taken over anyone's knee when she was younger.

She cared nothing for authority figures.

Oh yeah- he didn't like this kid. She was the type to make bad decisions and get people killed.

"Or you were simply excercising selective hearing. I'm told that all kids do that at one point or another when pissed about something."

"Actually I wouldn't be able to use selective hearing even if I wanted too," She said honestly though her tone remained the same. Fake. Polite. This man had not earned her trust or respect- and thus would not know that she actually had the same sort of hearing as a bat. Which actually came in handy when she was beyond the safety of the walls since what she might not see, she could sense and track through vibrations in the air. It sure as hell made hunting and defending herself easier.

But again, he didn't need to know that.

"Look, I just stopped you to apologize for-" Rick started to say when she reached out and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, her slender fingers twisting in the material. And then proceeded to lift him off of the ground a good four feet (flailing and kicking, he might add) as she growled at him and then promptly tossed him- head over heels- into a cluster of very thorny rose bushes in one of the neighbor's yards.

Earning a very pained yelp from him as she practically spat, "I don't give a damn what you came here to do. Fuck off you bastard!" And then began her trek away from him again.

Leaving the startled man to carefully extract himself from the rose bushes while trying to think up a new way to approach the girl- hopefully this time without being hurt.

(***************************************************************************************************************************)

Deanna walked into the house of the latest group of people and found Rick sitting in the kitchen with his shirt off, his face, neck torso and arms covered in raw and bleeding scratches and cuts and had to tamp down on the urge to laugh at V's latest tantrum.

 _Honestly, that girl_ \- She thought in amusement as she stepped a little further into the house and noted that Rick's son Carl and several others were standing around the kitchen watching the man squirm as Carol tended to his scratches and cuts.

"I can't believe that little slip of a gal tossed you into a rose bush." Daryl said in between bouts of laughter.

"I know. She's so tiny. One would think that she'd throw out her shoulder or her back tossing someone you're size." Carol said as she dabbed some alcohol on another cut with a cotton ball.

It was at this point that Deanna saw fit to voice her thoughts on the matter.

"Well, I don't know about that. V is notorious for her physical strength." Everyone, Rick included turned to look at the amused woman as she continued, "Due to her size, build and age- most mistake her as someone that they can easily push around. Sadly however, V's learned some hard lessons and lost a lot of good people because of that. So she learned that sometimes luring others into a false sense of security is the best kind of bait."

"I guess she really fooled you with her act, huh Rick." Deanna said almost cheerfully as Carol finished tending his wounds and he slowly slipped his shirt back on. "But I kind of wonder... Just what did you do to push her buttons so much?"

"She overheard us talking this morning about last night's incident." Rick admitted with a pained movement of his shoulders.

"Ah, yes. She came over this morning at about five am and told me about what had happened."

"Then you know that there were walkers inside the walls."

"Yes." Deanna said. Her expression remaining the same causing Rick to narrow his eyes at her.

"Forgive me, Deanna but you don't seem alarmed. Why is that?"

"Because." The woman said cryptically.

"Because what?"

She shrugged her shoulders and just continued to smile. "You'll figure it out in time." She said before promptly changing the topic so that she could give some of them their new jobs.


	6. Chapter 6

The first week of Rick and Michonne's new jobs were fairly uneventful aside from the training regiment from hell that they were forced to undergo under V's watchful eye. And due to the level of difficulty she seemed to delight in putting them through- it was more than a little obvious to Rick that the girl was holding a grudge against him and the others.

He knew this because whenever he did something wrong he usually wound up in a rose bush in someone's yard, cursing her while she'd turn to Michonne, whom would put her hands up and slowly back away. Earning her a glare and a muttered, "Traitor." from him.

Thankfully though- even when she put them through the ringer during training- she was 'nice' enough to take double shifts for days afterwards so that the two could take some time to recover and lick their wounds (both physically and mentally).

And it was on one such days that Rick was out walking with Judith in his arms when he noticed that V wasn't out making her usual rounds and became curious as to what the girl could be doing and decided to go by her home and see if she was still there.

After all, any number of things could have happened.

She could be sick and unable to do her job. Or she could have become injured in an accident (probably from doing something dumb) and was currently laying either unconscious or dead in a pool of her own blood somewhere. For some reason he just seemed to naturally imagine her going in a painful and possibly gruesome manner- with a limb missing or something.

And since he'd learned several days ago from some neighbors that the girl lived pretty much alone since the deaths of her grandparents- well, let's just say that despite the amount of hostility the girl obviously felt towards him and certain _other_ people in his group didn't matter much anymore since his concern for her well being was quickly over riding his anger and irritation towards her for all the rose bushes she'd tossed him in.

Walking to the farthest side of Alexandria, he couldn't help but notice how few homes were built in the area and that V's own little place was firmly nestled not too far from the wooded area that had been walled in along with the rest of the community to keep the walkers out.

Stepping onto the path that led up to her front door, Rick couldn't help but notice just how different in design V's home was from everyone else's.

Sure it was a two story house just like every other in Alexandria, but it also had the appearance of a log hunting cabin. Which meant it probably had four or five rooms, two in a half bathrooms, a nice kitchen and living room to match with the wrap around porch and the flower beds of roses, tulips, snap dragons, sun flowers, daisy's, lily's and a few other flowering plants that he didn't know the names of.

All in all, the place looked as if it belong on the cover of better homes and gardens magazine. And he couldn't help but wonder if she was the one who kept it looking as it was or if it had been something that her late grandmother had done.

One thing was for sure, the sight of her thriving rose bushes, worried him. Would his presence at her home today cause her to become upset? Would she toss him into one of the bushels of roses growing along her porch?

He seriously hoped not. He doubted he could handle anymore scratches and cuts.

As it was Daryl and Glenn had been laughing their asses off at the very sight of him lately. And Carl had also started in on him. Michonne was no frigging help. And he was forever stuck with Carol hovering over him with cotton swabs drenched in alcohol and band aids.

Thankfully, he liked each of them and put up with their laughing at him and teasing and fussing otherwise it would just be him and his kids.

Which wasn't an entirely depressing thought, but Judith's idea of riveting conversation was baby speak and he didn't understand a word of her gibberish. Where as Carl had recently made new friends and only wanted to spend time with them once he was free from school for the day.

Walking up the steps to V's house he lifted his hand and started to knock on the door when he heard a strange noise coming from somewhere behind the house. Frowning, he followed the sound back down the steps and around the house where he found V in a small stretch of field that must have been part of her yard, swinging a laughing and shrieking dark haired little girl who looked like she was barely five or six years old, around in her arms.

He stood there watching for several moments, wondering who the little girl was as V put her down and pretended to be tired when he heard the child say, "Play mommy! Please, please, please!" While holding her slender little arms up for V to pick her up and Rick automatically recoiled from the shock.

His mind trying to sort through what the little girl had called V.

 _Nuh-uh._ There was no way the girl could be a mother. There just couldn't be. She barely appeared to be more than fifteen years old! That was just barely two years older than his son, Carl! And with the child barely being five or six... She would have had to be incredibly young when she had the child.

Like nine or ten years old kind of young.

And while he knew such things had been known to happen in some cases, under certain circumstances- he certainly hoped that her daughter hadn't resulted from such a circumstance. Blinking, he turned his attention back to the two as the little girl ran in a circle around V and then stopped and held out her hands again and began to chant.

"Swing mommy! Swing- _Ahhhh_!" The girl shrieked again as V grasped her little hands and then spun her around in a circle a few more times before depositing the giggling child carefully on the ground before dropping down next to her and sitting there.

"Are you tired yet?" V asked her daughter who bit her lower lip to stifle her laughter, her nearly sightless gold colored eyes, sparkling with humor as she shook her head no and quickly bounded to her feet and jumped on V and climbed onto her back with her little arms wrapped around her neck and laughed again as her mother turned her head one way and then another, trying to see what she was doing since she had a habit of trying to bite her sometimes when she was hungry.

And the last thing she needed was her own offspring taking a chunk out of her and being labeled a monster. They had enough issues to deal with thanks entirely to their differences, thank you very much.

"Not really." The girl replied as she settled her little chin on her mother's left shoulder and felt her mother twist her head around to look at her face before feeling her shoulders shake slightly under her small body as she reached up and patted her on her head.

"Really? Cause you seem sort of tired now to me. I bet you're so tired you wanna sleep now huh?"

"Not really," The little girl said again. She was starting to get hungry. She could tell cause she was suddenly sniffing her mom and her mouth was beginning to water. Lifting her head up off of her mother's shoulder, the girl made an irritated huffing sound and then muttered, "I think I am kind of hungry though."

"Then we better go inside and feed the beast." V said very softly as she slowly got to her feet with her daughter still on her back.

"M'kay." The little girl said almost sullenly as her mother started walking towards the house when she managed to catch a whiff of aftershave and Irish Spring soap a mere second or so before she heard her mother let out a threatening, feral sounding growl. "Mommy?"

Her mother didn't immediately respond to her, though she could hear the faint rumbling of her mother's continued growls as they reached the porch and she was set down a moment before she heard her mother say in a hard tone, "Go on inside and pull the container in the bottom of the fridge out and start eating." She felt her mother fun her finger tips through her shoulder length dark hair and then she just seemed to vanish.

Literally.

She felt the air move when her mother moved, the scent of her moving away from where she had set her down. She stood perfectly still and closed her eyes for a moment and could even make out the sound of her mother's angry stride as she raced towards someone else and re-opened her nearly sightless eyes and sighed.

Her mother was either going to kill the male who had been sniffing around their home or she would make him wish he were dead. Either way, she would return smelling of blood and in a really bad mood.

Hearing her stomach growl, she puffed out her little cheeks and made a growling sound of her own and stomped over to the front door and opened it so that she could slip inside of the house and let the door slam shut behind her.

(************************************************************************************************************)

Upon realizing that V intended to end her games with her child, Rick had started to back himself up and retrace his steps back away from her home, not really wanting to tear her away from her family or ruin her time with her kid since he was fairly certain that she wouldn't appreciate it anymore than any other parent would.

And he managed to get a fair distance away. Truly he did.

But obviously not far enough before he heard a series of feral sounding growls that rivaled a wild bears- and soon after felt long slender fingers grip the back of his red plaid shirt- and was then yanked off of his feet and made to land painfully on his back on the pavement and found himself looking up at a very, very, _very_ \- incredibly pissed off V.

 _"What. Were. You. Doing. At. My. Home?"_

Rick's mouth opened and closed several times as he tried to think up an acceptable answer to her question when he opted for the truth and replied with a slightly awkward stammer. "I-I w-was worried. S-So I came to c-c-check on you."

Her eyes narrowed at him for a moment and he could tell that she was just dying to rip him a new one, but instead simply sighed and leaned down and grasped his arm and pulled him to his feet in an almost just as shocking display of strength as all the times she'd tossed him in the rose bushes.

"You know one of these day's you're going to have to tell me how you manage to jerk around a man twice your size and weight." Rick said as he brushed himself off.

"My center of gravity is better than yours." V said in a deadpan tone as she looked the man over. Despite being a pain in her ass much of the time, Rick was quickly endearing himself to her through his work for the people of the community. But she didn't want him and his sniffing around her home and finding out about her kid.

Not when their very lives were put at risk every time someone found out. Thankfully to date, only Deanna and her husband were the only one's who knew about her and her daughter, Winter. So she hadn't had to kill anyone just yet. Which is good, she supposed. Though she had already figured out how to dispose of the bodies. And where to bury what was left...

"Center of gravity. Really? That's the story you're going with?" Rick said in an almost sarcastic tone as he stared her down. She shrugged.

"It's true though. Before everything happened with the world ending, I used to take martial arts lessons and when I lived with my grandparents, my grand pa saw to it that I continued to learn hand to hand and stuff."

He raised his eye brows at her comment and wanted to ask what her grandparents had thought about her having a child at such a young age, but stopped himself since it wasn't any of his business. "So... On a scale of 1 to 10 just how pissed are you at me right now?" He found himself asking her instead.

Partially out of curiosity and partially out of self preservation.

"Dunno? How long were you at my place?"

"Just four or five minutes." He replied, knowing that she'd probably already realized that he'd seen her with her kid. So lying right now would just make things even worse on him if she was really pissed.

"I see." She said in a quiet tone that had him stepping away from her as quickly as he could. However he still wasn't quite fast enough to evade capture. She reached out and snagged his wrist in one hand and shot him a creepy smile then abruptly turned and began walking back to her house, dragging him along behind her- protesting and trying to pry her fingers from his wrist the whole way.

Really the man had only himself to blame for this.

"Oh stop you're complaining you big baby." V hissed at him as she dragged him up the steps to her front door and took a moment to listen for Winter so that she could tell her exact location in the house. Once she was satisfied that Winter was in her bedroom, she reached out and pulled the door open and pushed Rick inside. And whistled really loud causing the man to cringe a bit before she yelled, "Oi! Winter- come see what mamma's dragged home!"


	7. Chapter 7

Winter stood before the shadowy figure that her mother had brought home and used her heightened sense of smell to tell whether or not said shadow was male or female.

Since so far all she could smell was Irish Spring soap and a little bit of sweat and... _male hormones_? They smelled like male hormones but she was still young and the last time she had been exposed to the scent of male hormones was back when her father had been alive.

And even then she hadn't liked the way he smelled. Like something terrible and vile mixed with ashes.

It was the kind of scent that had made her stomach tighten in pain and protest the presence or source of the smell. It was also a smell that was so strong that she could practically taste it on her tongue. This person- er, male- however smelled... _nice_. Wonderful even.

"Mommy," She said knowing that her mother was standing either right beside her somewhere or was right behind the male person. "We may have... _issues_ later." Winter said in a low tone, trying to warn her mother that letting someone who smells so pleasant near her may be an bad idea when the guy leaves.

Because she might get hungry and try to leave to seek him out. It was an instinctual response for her due to her age. If something was so pleasing to her senses and her hunger rose- she would tear through her home like a little hurricane in an effort to reach the door so that she could track the man down and take a bite out of him.

But then her mother knew this and would probably stop her. Which may have played a small part in _why_ her mother had brought the guy to their home with her. Along with the possibility that since the man had been hanging around their home- he had probably seen her.

Which could lead to trouble in the future for the two of them. Unless this was her mother's way of defusing the situation before it got bad.

Knowing very well what her daughter was speaking of, V reached out and placed her hand on top of her dark head and said, "Rick. This is my baby- Winter."

Rick was silent as the child was introduced, he was too busy studying her up close to really be paying attention to much anyways. There was something about the child that, well, just seemed...off-ish. Glancing from mother to child, he was able to tell one thing for sure- the girl obviously didn't take after her mother completely in appearance. Though he suspected that she did have her mother's dark hair.

Which meant that V must often dye hers just to keep it looking so shockingly blue.

But the child's eyes- they were peculiar. Gold. Nearly pupiless. He'd seen eyes like hers before. Far too many times in recent years. The very sight of them sent a chill down his spine and had his heart rate cranking up as adrenaline spiked his system in fear.

It was a sensation he was more than familiar with. The one when he was staring death in the face. Turning his alarmed eyes to V he noted that the girl had a similar stare though her eyes held far more life in them than her child's. And she was watching his twitchy fingers like a fucking hawk.

Yeah, she knew what he was staring at. Why he was so twitchy.

And the cold look in her eyes spoke volumes.

 _Don't fuck with my kid if you want to keep breathing._

"Baby why don't you go take a nap for a little while," V said in a semi coaxing tone as she spoke to the little girl before saying in a darker tone, "The grown up's need to have a talk." Leaning down she kissed the child on the top of the head and then straightened to her full height as Rick warily watched her daughter navigate herself over to the stairs and then carefully begin to climb them.

The moment the child was out of the room Rick turned on V, his expression a combination of fury and fear. He didn't understand how it was that Alexandria had it's own little child walker in it's back yard, but that wasn't all he didn't understand.

He wanted to know how it was that the damn thing was still able to function as a normal human. To laugh, and breathe and play without causing harm. The fact alone that the child was intelligent frightened him beyond reason and/or measure.

Yet all he could manage to ask out of the millions of things rattling around in his mind was, "How is this even possible?" His tone was low, angry, but low. Almost as if he were afraid to speak in more than a whispered tone.

Which V could understand since he had lived outside the walls for so long. But he needn't have bothered. Winter could hear a tick fart half way across the country. Her hearing was just that outstanding.

"Come into the kitchen and sit down and I'll fix some tea for you." He looked at her as if she was insane. And maybe she looked that way to him, but she knew it was only a matter of time before someone found out about her little girl. She just hoped that Rick was the right person to trust with the delicate information she would be giving him.

But even if he wasn't, she knew that she couldn't totally hold it against him. After all the man had kids of his own. People of his own that he had to protect.

And she knew that their safety and well being would always come first.


End file.
